are heavy weapons any good?

[Someasianguy]

I have one guy that is using a heavy weapon, and he hardly ever lands any hits. the attack skill and weapon skills for him would match higher than his opponent, but even the guys with sabres and katanas would be having a higher success rate. Should I just get him a sabre or katana?

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

depends on your play style.
i use a mix in my groups. i use heavies for a few. though they slow now they do get faster but takes a while.
ussualy best to train them in light first though to get their agility up. once its nice and high you can switch to heavies.

[Strudel]

Once a heavy weapon user is adequately trained, they are monsters in battle. I have about 5 of them in my group. One swing and they can kill, not knockout, kill, 3 or 4 people. Really anyone who gets caught up in the animation will either be killed or maimed.

The obvious downside, is the road to that point. When they are using a heavy weapon at los skill, they are practically useless. The struggle, however, is well worth it.

[Mystic Referee]

I definitely recommend if you have a heavy, to do some "Cage matches" where they block only to get their defense and toughness up. Cause really what's gonna hold them back is getting hit while swinging and not being tough enough to resist staggering from the blow. Cause that is a massive wind-up time on those weapons.

[Aurelia]

Definatelly worth having one of these monsters:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=412611722

It is as hatsune said though. Best train up with a light weapon and get that dex up. They require both high str and dex to use efficiently, but they pack a punch on the field. This is a very cheap fragment axe (like catun 005 or something) and her str isn't quite up there even yet, yet she's already approaching 100 dmg per swing to a large area of units. Just make sure you place your heavy weapons units in heavy armor such as samurai or holy chest plate. Keeping them out of stunlock damage may be the only way to make them have any efficiency at all.

[bubbiesben]

Luminaire.. How did you change the UI? I can see you have divided them into 3 groups

[Aurelia]

I'm running the experimental build. It's the beta opt in version. It contains the latest updates at the risk of being more unstable than the mainbranch. Right now though it seems significantly more stable, so i can't imagine it'll be long before it's pushed to mainbranch.

If you want to opt in, right click the game in your library, go to properties, click on the beta tab, and select opt into beta from the beta dropdown (no code is required). Reverify your files to force an update (you'll need to re-add your mods to your mods.cfg file if you have any as it will clear that file though) I'd recommend checking it out :) If you don't know how to reverity, click on the local files tab in that same properties window and click the bottom bar that says "Verify intergrity of game cache"

One thing to note though that is launches from steam in a 64b version. If you don't have a 64b machine, you can still launch it from an available 32b app in your kenshi folder though. I'm just unsure what exactly that contains in it and how stable it might be. Not had much input on that yet.

[Drakken]

Originally posted by HaTsUnE_NeKo:

depends on your play style.
i use a mix in my groups. i use heavies for a few. though they slow now they do get faster but takes a while.
ussualy best to train them in light first though to get their agility up. once its nice and high you can switch to heavies.

Since when you have a group?
Hmm wait, those.. friends can't be considered as a member of a group..
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/21/science/castaway533.jpg


And to be on topic i have 20 tanks in plate armors with heavy weapons
I am not sure if this is the best thing to do but i can clean a nest of 10 to 20 dogs or beak things.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

most my people wear medium or light weight gear and use light weight weapons.
i prefer speed over tanking and heavy weapons.
ussualy when one of my tanks take down a enemy. my light weight one has allready killed 10

[Drakken]

The idea is for me to work on strengh first so i am carrying 400KG of steel clubs + heavy weapon + plate armor/ character and when all characters will be around 85/90 of strengh i will switch for light weapons and light armors.


Now i am wondering if i am droping all the clubs is the plate armor still conssidered heavy for a very strong character, strong enough to run at full speed with a plate+mails?

[Aurelia]

Originally posted by Drakken:

The idea is for me to work on strengh first so i am carrying 400KG of steel clubs + heavy weapon + plate armor/ character and when all characters will be around 85/90 of strengh i will switch for light weapons and light armors.


Now i am wondering if i am droping all the clubs is the plate armor still conssidered heavy for a very strong character, strong enough to run at full speed with a plate+mails?

Regardless of strength, you'll still need to pay attention to the atheletics pentalties on equipment. They add up quickly. A character with massive strength to the point that wearing full samurai armor weighing him down 0% will still walk around instead of run due to the % penalties on the equipment.

Originally posted by HaTsUnE_NeKo:

most my people wear medium or light weight gear and use light weight weapons.
i prefer speed over tanking and heavy weapons.
ussualy when one of my tanks take down a enemy. my light weight one has allready killed 10

I've found that heavy armor people are atleast significantly useful for defending against packs of dogs and beakthings... someone in a full set of standard samurai armor takes anywhere from 3-8 dmg per hit from dogs. So even unskilled and low stat individuals will hold their ground for a decent period of time, instead of being reliant on high combat skills.

High combat skills however will outdo heavy armor in the end. No need to be able to absorb damage if you can block everything thrown at you, and the combat speed penalties of armor slows down your combat altogether.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

you will notice a difference.
in light armor you will always run the fastest.
even if you train everything up to max. light weight gives lowest penalties while running.
even my character ( which i have tested this,, a lot )

No encumberance. wearing plate mail.. run animation shows a lower run rate.
medium armor improves this a bit. you can nearly reach full speed. in light is when you run like the wind.
What you wear will affect your run speed. no matter how strong you are. you will still weigh more.
I found that kinda neat. that you can see that difference.
its even more pronounced if you carry someone. wearing light armour, high enough strength to warrent no encumberance, yet your run speed is way down.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

Originally posted by Luminaire:

High combat skills however will outdo heavy armor in the end. No need to be able to absorb damage if you can block everything thrown at you, and the combat speed penalties of armor slows down your combat altogether.

very true.

[Drakken]

Yep Luminiare, dogs even many of them are no match for good armored group of heavy warriors, and heavy weapons + high strengh will kill them in no time, not as fast as before since the damages of the heavy weapons + 80+ strengh as been massively nerfed.
Beak things are hiting harder but i still won a 20 Vs 20 battle and that long ago with characters not as strong as today (strengh around 40 and not high ends planks & heavy clubs like today. )

Ok for the run speed with an heavy armor, oh well since i am always running toward the enemies i am running fast enough i guess :)

[Drakken]

can you really block everything with light to no armor and high dext? especially since you nearly always have a minus to your defense with light weapons.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

in the end. for this topic, yes heavy weapons have their place. they are perfect for tanks. even if they the slowest in your party. cross training is definitely a must in Kenshi.
In the end. a lightweight fighter in kenshi can usually kill faster then a heavy can. the difference is what they wear.

the other armour differences are.
Light Weight. good for fast and furious fights. bad protection from blades. great verses blunt.
Medium. this your average, good against everything with no real bad sides.
Heavy. Slow but packs a punch. great verses blades, poor verses clubs. and blunt damage.

Weapons.
Light. Quick and fast the higher end ones can get you 1 shot 1 knockout and heavy bleeding usually leading to death.
Medium, good all around class, good for blocking but has penalties with attack. good against all armour types.
Heavy. Slow and ponderous to use. Only weapon known to kill in one shot. difacult to master

Blunt. ranges from light to medium to heavy. good all around weapon though the high end ones tend to be extremely heavy and do lead to one shot kills or knockouts.

Originally posted by Drakken:

can you really block everything with light to no armor and high dext? especially since you nearly always have a minus to your defense with light weapons.

close enough yes.
though you can still get hit. but not as often as someone wearing heavy armour.